I haven't forgotten about Fairytale Magic, but those two just aren't ready to move on from their kiss just yet, and this needed to be written tonight. With heartfelt thanks to those who dedicate their lives to making other's lives easier when it's needed most.
A lot of doctoring is waiting around, Gilbert reflected as he leant over the Alistair MacAllister's verandah balcony, sipping his lemonade, taking in the sweeping view. There was something surreal about standing on a verandah over the harbour, where his gaze usually looked to, and looking back on his side of the harbour, where his gaze usually came from. He could see the bustling fishing life of the harbour, the Glen and, if he squinted Ingleside where his wife and children would be eating their dinner without him. It felt as if he'd jumped into another world, but at times like this nothing felt quite real.
"I'm sorry doc" said Katie McAlaister, Alistair's second wife, a ruddy woman in her late thirties, looking more like fifty today with the strain of the last few weeks and the grief she felt. "You have your own family to be with on a summer's evening."
"There's no more important place for me to be here than with your Pamela" Gilbert said. "Anne would agree. I was the first person to welcome her to this world 15 years ago, and its right that if she has to leave us so soon, I'm there to see her leave for the next!"
"She's not in any pain," he continued reassuringly, "the delusions have passed. She's peaceful and will go in her own time,and I'll be here with you all the way. There's no rushing your Pamela, do you remember the night she was born? The wind was blowing a gale, and she wasn't coming out until the storm calmed."
Katie smiled. It felt comforting that this young doctor, not quite so young now, held all their comings and goings in his hand, like he was the cover on a book, keeping all that came in between together.
As he finished speaking, Gilbert saw his wife Anne, with their ten year old son Jem walking up the path, a basket in hand.
"We don't want to intrude, Mrs MacAllister" said Anne," but Susan and I thought if we sent up a beef stew , and some sandwiches you would have more time with your girl tonight."
"Mum?, Doc?," before Katie had a chance to thank Anne, Robbie, her youngest called out, "I think this is it."
Gilbert, without even a glance at Anne, took Katie's hand and they went back into the front room where Pamela was taking her last breath.
Out on the verandah, a curious Jem asked "Why does he do it Mum? Why does he stay where there is nothing more he can do?"
Anne answered in a quiet voice, as if she was praying "Because it's his privilege, his honour to help those who he brought into this world, to leave it. In some ways I think it's his favourite part of doctoring. Your father never likes to lose a patient, especially one so young, but if they have to go, he wants to be with them when they do. He always says its something quite beautiful to see a spirit leave a body and travel onto the next world."
An anguished cry from inside the house indicated that Robbie had been right and Pamela had drawn her last breath. A few minutes later, Gilbert came out rubbing his hands on a towel and walked towards his own family.
"Thank you for bringing the family supper Anne, you're always so thoughtful"
"We all play our part," Anne said with a smile. "You're a doctor, you bring knowledge and skill, I'm a doctor's wife, I bring food and comfort." Then, after a pause, "She's gone?"
"Yes, too soon, too young. You know she reminded me of Ruby Gillis in the end," he said referring to their childhood friend who had passed while still young "she had the same look on her face when she left, only this time it was typhoid not consumption."
He paused then continued. "Sometimes I wish I'd stayed at Redmond and worked on cures for things like typhoid. I wonder what our life would have been like if I'd done that. We certainly wouldn't be living here, maybe in Boston. I hear there is some remarkable work being done by a female doctor there, a Doctor Mary something*."
"You do what you can." Anne replied "And contribute in your own way. You share your experience with your old college at Redmond, and that goes into research to help those developing cures."
"Maybe, maybe. But sometimes I wish I could do more" Gilbert mused
"Perhaps I can Dad" interjected Jem, much impressed with the way his parents were speaking . "When I grow up I can be a doctor and help develop cures to save the Pamela's of this world."
"That would be wonderful, darling", smiled Anne. "can you imagine a world where there is a cure for all the cruel diseases". Anne's imagination sparked by the thought of a world free from the pain of early deaths from disease.
Katie and her husband Allistair came out to join them. Allistair grabbed Gilbert's hand and held it with some force. "Thank you Doctor," he said "You know I've never been much for modern doctoring, but what you did for our girl. Helping her through it, easing her pain when you could, holding her hand when you couldn't. Other doctors wouldn't have stayed, they'd have run back to their own comforts, but you, you never left her side, and I can never thank you enough."
Jem watched with amazement on his face as he saw this hard farming man, with tears running down his face, pay such respect to his father. Research was important, he thought, cures had to be found, but there was something infinitely noble in the work his father did. Caring with knowledge and skill, but also compassion and understanding, changing the lives of those around him just through his way of being. Perhaps he'd be a family doctor after all.
*Doctor Mary is from Elizasky's 'The Sun and Other Stars'. If you haven't read her work, you should. It's extraordinary